Romney woes jangle GOP nerves

If political campaigns have nine lives, nervous Republicans feel Mitt Romney has used up at least eight.

While insisting the party is still short of full-fledged panic, the video of Romney disparaging Americans who don’t pay income taxes and the GOP nominee’s consistently unsteady explanation of what he meant has prompted a chorus of fed-up Republicans to speak out about a campaign they see as badly in need of a jolt.

Elected officials, donors and operatives are irritated about facing yet another distraction, but the surreptitiously recorded clips have triggered a round of broader complaints over Romney’s fundraising-focused schedule, lackluster candidate skills and a seemingly adrift campaign that trails in key battleground states with less than 50 days to go.

Opinion is mixed on just how damaging Romney discussing “the 47 percent” at a spring fundraiser will ultimately be for the campaign. But longtime GOP hands find the video and Romney’s attempt to neither fully embrace nor fully apologize for his comments to be symptomatic of a larger problem. The former Massachusetts governor can’t seem to string consecutive positive days together and often is his own worst enemy. A month’s worth of woes, beginning with a forgettable GOP convention, has taken its toll on the Republican psyche.

“The problem is the campaign is now in a spiral and no one knows how to pull out,” said Republican strategist Greg Strimple, who worked on John McCain’s 2008 campaign. “Romney needs a big idea, then he needs to shift the debate to spending.”

But instead of the retooled and refocused campaign aides promised just 48 hours ago, what Romney has now is the biggest distraction to his campaign yet, one that has prompted two Republican Senate candidates - including one in his own home state — to distance themselves from his original comments.

“That’s not the way I view the world,” said Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) of Romney’s observation. “As someone who grew up in tough circumstances, I know that being on public assistance is not a spot that anyone wants to be in.”

Even as they lament this latest unforced error from Romney, many in the party believe their candidate faces more fundamental challenges, including a dwindling number of days left before the election to make his case to swing-state voters.

Romney has not held a public event since Friday and spent much of Tuesday raising money in Utah and Texas.

“He needs to be talking about the economy and not in Utah,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “He’s not going to get beat because of money. He ought to be running in Ohio and Florida like he’s running for governor and running in Virginia like he’s running for sheriff.”

Some Republicans actually think there’s political promise in having a debate about the larger issue of the growing dependency on government benefits. But few not working for Romney’s campaign believe that a nominee shown to be politically tone deaf can effectively articulate the case.

“I think he’s better served saying, ‘I’ve said what I said, I’m worried about [the] culture of dependency and that’s why I’ve got [a] plan for the middle class’ and just go to that,” said former George W. Bush adviser and American Crossroads co-founder Karl Rove.

Rove, emphasizing that Romney has “plenty of time,” offered caution about using the 47 percent figure, noting that many such Americans who don’t pay income taxes are part of the GOP coalition.